{"id":27983,"date":"2017-06-11T01:38:39","date_gmt":"2017-06-11T08:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=27983"},"modified":"2017-06-11T16:06:13","modified_gmt":"2017-06-11T23:06:13","slug":"trump-vs-comey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2017\/06\/11\/trump-vs-comey\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump vs. Comey"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The lonliest man in the world in a room full of people.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I don't know what people were waiting for most, James Comey's testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, or Trump's reaction to it.  Of course, to get the second, you must have the first.  They are part and parcel.<\/span><\/p>\n

While James Comey was giving testimony under oath to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Thursday 08 June 2017, Trump was speaking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington, DC.<\/span>  According to the <\/span>Washington Post<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, <\/p>\n

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"… just as Comey was wrapping up his public hearing, Trump recited Isaiah 1:17, which states: “Learn to do right, seek justice, defend the oppressed. Take up the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”<\/p>\n

Then the president added in his own words: “The entrenched interests and failed bitter voices in Washington will do everything in their power to try and stop us from this righteous cause, to try to stop all of you. They will lie, they will obstruct, they will spread their hatred and their prejudice, but we will not back down from doing what is right.”<\/p>\n

“Because as the Bible tells us, we know the truth will prevail,” he added. “Nothing worth doing ever came easy. . . . We know how to fight better than anybody, and we never give up. We are winners, and we are going to fight.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I am sorry, but when did Drumpf or a pseudo Christian ever heed the true meaning of scripture?  Righteous cause?  Drumpf was playing the audience like a maestro plays the violin, and they bought itlock, stock and barrel.<\/span><\/p>\n

From <\/span>The NY Times<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, these highlights from The Senate hearing:<\/span><\/p>\n

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‘Lies, plain and simple’<\/h4>\n

Mr. Comey said Mr. Trump lied to the American public when he said that the F.B.I. was in disarray and that agents had lost confidence in Mr. Comey.<\/p>\n

“Those were lies, plain and simple,” Mr. Comey said in brief opening remarks.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump made that claim when he fired Mr. Comey last month. Mr. Comey said he was confused and concerned by Mr. Trump’s changing explanation for why he fired him.<\/p>\n

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Mr. Comey learned of his firing from the news media. He offered a heartfelt farewell to his former employees.<\/p>\n

“I am so sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye to you publicly,” Mr. Comey said.<\/p>\n

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, said that Mr. Trump watched some of the hearing but was also focusing on other matters. Asked to respond to Mr. Comey’s assertion that the president had lied, she said, “I can definitively say the president is not a liar, and frankly I’m insulted by that question.”  …<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

‘We know how to fight,’ Trump says<\/h4>\n

Mr. Trump, appearing at a meeting of faith leaders and politicians in Washington as Mr. Comey testified across town, railed against the media and his political opponents.<\/p>\n

“We know how to fight better than anybody and we never, ever give up — we are winners and we are going to fight,” he told hundreds of supporters at the annual Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump recited Isaiah 1:17, then continued by saying that “entrenched interests” in Washington “will lie, they will obstruct, they will spread their hatred and their prejudice, but we will not back down from doing what is right.”<\/p>\n

“We know the truth will prevail,” he added. “Nothing worth doing ever came easy.”<\/p>\n

A short time later, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Marc E. Kasowitz, issued a statement denying Mr. Comey’s testimony that the president pressured him to drop his investigations into the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia. He also said Mr. Trump never demanded “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty” as Mr. Comey testified on Thursday.<\/p>\n

“Contrary to numerous false press accounts leading up to today’s hearing, Mr. Comey has now finally confirmed publicly what he repeatedly told the president privately: The president was not under investigation as part of any probe into Russian interference,” Mr. Kasowitz’s statement said. “He also admitted that there is no evidence that a single vote changed as a result of any Russian interference.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump watched part of the hearings with the lawyer, and Mr. Kasowitz’s statements tracked closely with emails and talking points issued by the Republican National Committee, who think the former director hurt himself by acknowledging he leaked a memo detailing his private interactions with the president.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Click through for more highlights.  You can also read a transcript of the hearing at <\/span> <\/span>NY Times<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.  It is decidedly faster than listening to the three plus hours of testimony, although the nuance of tone and body language is lost. <\/span><\/p>\n

Rachel Maddow <\/strong>provides some analysis of the day's proceedings.<\/span><\/p>\n